GMOs Essay examples

Many farmers in Canada have welcomed major crop plants produced by genetic engineering. Four major transgenic crops including canola, corn, soy and sugar beet have been approved for commercial production in Canada (Canada & Agency, 2015). Transgenic organisms offer a range of benefits in the agricultural applications. Over many years, transgenic organisms have helped increase crop productivity by introducing drought tolerance and disease resistance to crops. Today, scientist has been able to select genes for disease resistant from other organism and relocate them to essential crops. For example, in the 1980, researchers from University of Hawaii teamed up with Cornell University to develop a papaya cultivar resistant to papaya

What exactly is genetically modified organism? GMO is a living organism (bacteria, plant, animal) whose genetic composition has been altered by means of gene technology and the genetic modification usually involves insertion of a piece of DNA (bacteria or virus) and/or synthetic combination of several smaller DNA, into the genome of the organism to be modified (Khan, Muafia, Nasreen & Salariya, 2012). GMO have two specific transgenes that have been created; one, with a built in pesticide for insect resistance and the other, for herbicide tolerance. Genetic modification has been a progressive resource to reducing/eliminating challenging environmental conditions that crops face related to pests, disease and harsh climate conditions. Elevating nutritional quality and the deficiency of vitamin A

Technology now allows us to transfer genes between organisms. For example, the tomato plant 's beetle resistance relies on a gene from a bacterium (Bacillus thuringiensis), which scientists inserted into the tomato plant 's genome. This gene, called cry1Ac, encodes a protein that is poisonous to certain types of insects, including the beetle. How is this done? Gene transfer technology is simply a sophisticated version of a cut-and-paste operation. Once the desired gene is identified in the native organism 's genome, it can be cut out, transferred to the target plant, and pasted into its genome… Once the new gene has been introduced, the plant can be bred to create a new strain that passes the gene from generation to generation. (pp 8,9)

GMOs (or “genetically modified organisms”) are living organisms whose genetic material has been artificially manipulated in a laboratory through genetic engineering, or GE. This relatively new science creates unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacteria and viral genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods.

Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are living organisms whose genetic material has been artificially manipulated in a laboratory through genetic engineering. In 1980 the first GMO Patent was issued, a court case took place between a genetics engineer at General Electric and the U.S. Patent Officer Court ruling, allowing for the first patent on living organism. This relatively new science creates unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacterial and viral genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional cross breeding methods. GMOs are chemically manipulated in the lab to change the DNA of plants and animals for a desirable trait. For example, Engineers take the DNA of plant who can produce its own defenses against insects and inherit

GMO’s are developed by splicing genes from one species into the genes of an unrelated plant. They do this by finding the gene they are looking for, they then isolate the gene they are interested in. They then insert the desired genetic trait into a new genome. They use a “gene gun” to shoot particles coated with DNA into

Biotechnology in agriculture is a collection of scientific techniques used to improve or modify plants and microorganisms. Simplistic examples of biotechnology are employing yeast, molds, and bacteria to create fermented foods such as milk and cheese, or crossbreeding plants in hope of improving agriculture. The benefits of biotechnology in agriculture increased over the past few decades after scientists discovered that DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is interchangeable among plants, animals and other organisms, alike. This allows scientists to invent new products through both crossbreeding and a transfer of genes. Nearly any desirable trait found in nature can be transferred to a select organism. This process of transferring DNA from one to another is referred to as genetic engineering (The United States Mission to the European Union:1999).

Before creating a GMO, three major components are essential. First factor is the gene we want to transfer. Next is the organism we want to put it into or also known as target species. Last element is a vector to carry the gene into the target species cells. It is quite simple with the progression of creating GMO. The gene to be transferred can be referred as trans-gene. Trans-gene must be removed and isolated from the original organism. This step is regularly completed by restriction enzymes which perform like molecular scissors. A restriction endonuclease is an enzyme that removes strands of DNA at a precise point. It scans the DNA for a specific target sequence, and when it discoveries that target sequence it

The first appearance of engineered food entered the scene around 1995, and has been increasing in popularity in countries in and around the United States ever since. In fact, over eighty percent of all processed food in America contain GMOs. The original purpose of GMOs was to resist certain pests and environmental conditions involved in the natural way of growth and development of the organisms. Genetic engineering involves an organism 's phenotype and altering its genetic make-up by what 's known as simple mating. The desired gene to be engineered into the plant is inserted by restriction enzymes into what is known as a plasmid, a small piece of the plants DNA. By performing such an unnatural occurrence, many harmful effects are created (GMO Facts).

    The development of recombinant DNA techniques have allowed desired genes to be inserted into a plant genomes resulting in plants that are totally different to the parent plant. The first genetically modified plant-antibiotic resistant tobacco and petunias-were produced in 1983, but it was until 1994 that US markets saw the first genetically modified species of tomato, approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Since then, several transgenic crops have received FDA

So, what is a GMO and how are they made? GMO’s are the result of a laboratory process, where genes are extracted from the DNA of one species and inserted into the cells of another plant or animal (Responsible Technology). These foreign genes may come from bacteria, viruses, insects, animals or even humans. After an organismorganism, has been modified it can be referred to as a transgenic organism, genetically modified (GM), or genetically engineered (GE). All living organisms have natural barriers around their cells, in order toto create a GMO this barriersthis barrier must be broken. This can be achieved in several different ways; using viruses or bacteria to “infect” an animal/plant with the foreign DNA and injecting DNA into a fertilized egg are two of these techniques. Currently this is rather crude technology, with little to no accuracy (Responsible Technology).

Genetically modified organisms are a result of the splitting of genetic material and then moving it to another organism’s chromosomes. This makes the ability to change plants much easier than the slow process of cross breeding that sometimes leads to the traits they want. GMO plants sometimes possess genes that had never existed before by taking DNA from other organisms and combining them to create the traits they want. Plants are given traits that allow them to survive in extreme conditions and are higher in production. The way this works is that they take DNA from another organism and they separate it, employing enzymes for the task. Only the genes that are wanted are removed. Then the enzymes interweave the gene into the previously removed DNA that is contained in a bacterial cell. Next the DNA is put back inside the bacterial cell. The bacterium is allowed to spread throughout the plant cell and the DNA worms itself into the nucleus of the plant, which then increases. This “plant tumor” is grown in a laboratory. The altered callus seed is planted and allowed to reach full maturity, creating a modified or entirely new strain of plant (Cunningham and Cunningham, 2015).

Instead of transferring large blocks of genes from donor plant to recipient, small isolated blocks of genes are put into the plant chromosome through biolistics, vectors, or protoplast transformation (Horsch 1993). Biolistics is a technique that shoots the gene block into the potential host cell. In order for the process to succeed, the microscopic particles and DNA must enter the cell nuclei and combine with the plant chromosome. Biolistics is commonly used but has a slight failure risk since the breeder has little control over the destination of the gene block (Mooney & Bernardi 1990). Bacteria or viruses can also carry the gene blocks into a new cell. Common vectors in gene transfer between plants are Agrobacterium tumefaciens and Agrobacterium rhizogenes. In the soil, the bacteria will infect the plants with their own plasmid, transferring the desired gene that was placed in the bacteria's DNA. Vector gene transfer is a preferred method of transformation since this modification already occurs naturally in the environment (Rudolph & McIntire 1996). Last is protoplast transformation, which uses enzymes to dissolve the cellulose in the plant wall that leaves a protoplast. Once a specific gene block is added to the protoplast, the cell wall will re-grow into a transgenic plant.

Genetic modification, otherwise referred to as recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology or gene splicing, has proven to be more precise, predictable and a better-understood method for the manipulation of genetic material than previously attained through conventional plant breeding. Agricultural applications of the technology have involved the insertion of genes of desirable agronomic traits into a variety of crop plants, and from a variety of biological sources. Examples include soybeans modified with gene sequence from a streptomyces species encoding enzymes that confer herbicide tolerance, and corn plants modified to express the insecticidal protein of an indigenous soil microorganism, Bacillus thuringiensis. A growing body of evidence suggest that technology and may be used to make enhancements to not only the agronomic properties but the food, nutritional, industrial and medicinal attributes of genetically modified crops.

The coding region of the gene is usually fused to a promoter, most commonly used is the 35S promoter from cauliflower mosaic virus (CMV), in order to promote higher expression levels. (Snow et. al, 1997) The popular method for genetic engineering of crop plants is natural gene transfer via an Agrobacterium tumefaciens vector, a bacterium normally found in soils. The transfer-DNA (T-DNA) vector is made by inserting the desired gene fragment in between specific 25bp repeat domains in the bacterium. The vector is then inserted into the Agrobacterium and "the virulence gene products of Agrobacterium actively recognize, excise, transport, and integrate the T-DNA region into the host plant genomes." (Conner et. al, 1999) The amount of DNA transferred is only about 10kb and the nature of the gene is usually well understood. The expression of the gene introduced can also be controlled by adding additional sequences that might allow the gene to be constitutively expressed, expressed only in certain cell types, or expressed as a result of different environmental changes. This method of gene transfer, however, will only work for the natural host range of the bacterium and therefore other methods are used for additional crop plants. Such methods are uptake of naked DNA by electroporation or particle gun bombardment. The use of genetic markers, as mentioned previously, allows for the preferential growth of cultures that contain the new genetic